Friends

Easing of restrictions will allow gradual reintroduction of walks

The Friends Council appreciates your ongoing support during the Covid 19 restriction period. The latest SA Government announcement about a slight easing of some restrictions is welcome, although we will remain vigilant in protecting the health and safety of our volunteers and members.

Council has supported a recommendation from the Chair of the Walking Committee to adopt appropriate guidelines that will assist us to revive small group walking over the next few weeks. Walk leaders will be consulted about suitable loop walks with the view to ease into a modified program around the middle to late June after finalising any practical steps.

Extra responsibilities of walkers

Members attending walks will be expected to

register online

take responsibility for their own and others health by adhering to the current social distancing requirements; and

stay away if they have any cough, cold or fever symptoms.

Golden Boots passes extended

To acknowledge the patience of our members during the Covid restrictions, Council has decided to extend expiry dates for Golden Boots passes by 12 months.

Trail maintenance

We are also looking at how to recommence volunteer trail maintenance and will notify members when we have confirmed those arrangements.

Office relocation and reopening

During this period the Friends is also moving office to a larger space just next door. The office will remain closed until the relocation has been completed. Council has decided it is safer for our team if we get the new space organised before opening up again.

See you on the trail

We appreciate your patience as we gradually ease back into operation, and look forward to seeing you back on the trail.

The Friends of the Heysen Trail is disappointed to announce an extension to the cancellation of planned activities beyond 31 May 2020.

Sadly, in light of ongoing public health requirements, the Friends Council and Executive has made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel all the following activities:

Walking:

End to End Walk Program for 2020;

Group walks using buses: Lavender/Willunga Basin/Yurrebilla/Yorke Peninsula; and

Except that the October South Coast Walk will be reviewed mid-year.

Trailstarter/Trailwalker program.

Trail Development

Trail Development infrastructure projects;

Section Leader Trail Maintenance; and

Friends Shed work.

Office

Remain closed until further notice;

Online shop will cease for map and book sales;

Membership Subscriptions and Renewals will continue to be processed.

Trailwalker

Production of pdf only version will continue until restrictions are removed.

We share the frustration and regret that walks and trail work plans had to be adjusted.

Depending on progress around the current public health risks and any announced reduction in community isolation practices, the Friends may be able to revive some of our local Trailstarter/Trailwalker and/or trail development work later in the year. The website will be updated if that occurs.

In response to Covid 19 health provisions for social distancing and to avoid non-essential gatherings, the Friends Council has decided to postpone the Annual General Meeting that was scheduled on Friday 20 March 2020.

A new date will be notified when the public health situation becomes clear.

To be held on Friday March 20th 2020

You are invited to attend the 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the Heysen Trail and Other Walking Trails Inc. The meeting will be held at 7.30 pm on Friday March 20th 2020. The venue will be the Woodville Lawn Bowling Club, Oval Avenue, Woodville.

We are seeking nominations from you, our members, for election to the Friends Council at the AGM. There are vacancies in the following positions:

Vice President,

Secretary,

Treasurer and

half of the remaining members.

Our Constitution calls for not less than four and no more than ten non office-bearing members.

Our guest speaker will be a double act this year, Paul Nicholas and Eric Felgate. They managed the restoration and renovation of many of the iconic huts along the Trail including Mayo, Marschalls and Curnows with the help of men from Uniting Communities men’s shelters. This is their story!

You will also hear about our Association’s activities in 2019 and plans for 2020.

Come along and meet your council (they are the people who make the decisions). Find out what we intend to do to further develop, maintain and promote the use of the Heysen and other walking trails.

If you are thinking of becoming more involved please check the information and nomination form that you find in the Autumn issue of the Trailwalker which will be issuing shortly.

Please bring a plate. The bar will be open for drinks. Coffee and tea will be available.

AGM Agenda

Apologies

Acceptance of Minutes of the previous AGM held on March 22nd 2019.

President’s Report

Financial Report

Election of Officers

Vice President

Secretary

Treasurer

Council Members

Appointment of the Auditor

Election of Honorary Members

Other Business

Close Meeting

Any member wishing to move a motion at the AGM should be aware of the Constitutional requirements:

‘Notice of any such motion proposed to be moved at a General Meeting by any member not being a member of the Council shall be signed by the proposer and seconder and shall be delivered to the Secretary at least seven days before the meeting. No motion moved by any member other than a member of the Council shall be entertained by the meeting unless notice thereof has been given as aforesaid.’

As a part the upgrade of our membership and walk registration system we will be temporarily suspending online walk registrations for a day or so.

What are we doing?

We are updating the software that we use to run the membership and walk registration system. These changes to the ‘back end’ are mainly going to affect our Office Volunteers and Walk Leaders, but the system will make it easier to renew your membership.

We’ve chosen a period of low demand to make the change. This will allow us to be ready for the period of increased website traffic during the walk season.

Will the change affect you?

Apart from the temporary reduction in services on our website, our members and frequent visitors won’t notice many changes.

After the upgrade, the Walk Calendar on the website will look slightly different. But the calendar will operate much the same as the one you are familiar with.

There will be a welcome change for anyone intending to register for our End to End 15 walk. Registrations for this and all other events will no longer have a set opening time of midnight. Bookings will generally open at 7am instead.

You can help make the change easy

Over the next week our Office Volunteers will be undertaking training in using the new system.

If you need to renew your membership or register for a walk, we ask you to use the existing website. It will be operating normally until late on Monday February 17th.

If you contact the Office before the shutdown, we may not be able to answer the phone immediately. For urgent enquiries, please send us an email which we will action it as soon as we can.

We have limited copies of the Friends 2020 calendar.

If you haven’t got your copy yet, we still have copies available for $12.00. This is your last chance to admire the photography of the Heysen Trail trail submitted by members of the Friends and other walkers.

Get one for your wall at home or work. Use it to plan your walks and travel for 2020. Proceeds are used for the maintenance and further development of the trail.

Order from our On-line shop for delivery by post.

By ordering the calendar from our On-line shop you can request postage to an address in Australia or overseas.

Postage charges to any address within Australia (for a single copy) is an additional $4.80.

The Friends Office remains closed until 10.30 am on Tuesday February 4th.

Please note that our Office is closed until February 4th. A few volunteers will be making occasional visits to the Office to process on-line shop orders. While the Office is closed, we are not offering a ‘pick up’ service for calendar orders.

Holiday Closure for the Friends Office

The Friends of the Heysen Trail office will close for the Christmas period at 2:30pm on Friday, December 13th 2019. Our volunteers have earned a good break.

If you need to contact the office (by email or telephone) over the holiday period, it is unlikely that we will respond to your enquiry until we reopen. So we recommend that you refer to our website for any information you may need.

There will be a Volunteers Information Day on Monday, 3rd February with normal office operations beginning on Tuesday, 4th February 2020.

Online Shop Sales over Christmas

While the office is closed, our online shop will remain open for business. However, as many of our volunteers will be on holidays, it may take longer than normal to service orders. We will endeavour to dispatch shop orders within 5 business days.
If you want to shop for last minute Christmas purchases we undertake to dispatch any orders received by midday on Wednesday, December 18th, on that day.

Friends 2020 Calendar

If you haven’t yet got a copy of our new calendar, we still have supplies available. Pick up a copy from the office for $12, or order from our on-line shop. If you order by December 18th, you should have delivery by Christmas (subject to AusPost delivery timetables).

The Heysen Trail is closed over the Fire Danger Season

Remember that the Heysen Trail is now closed for the Fire Danger Season. You can access more information about the trail closure here.

Register for Twilight walks

Although the office and the Heysen Trail are closed, don’t forget our evening Twilight Walks. You can register for walks using our online Walks Calendar.

Merry Christmas!
The Office Volunteers wish all Friends members and supporters a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

As the walking season has come to a close, the arrival of warmer evenings and daylight saving has heralded the beginning of our Twilight Walks. There is a 1.5-2 hour walk on most Wednesday or Thursday nights until March.

The full programme is listed on our walk calendar but here are the details for the next four walks:

Thursday 5th December 6pm: The Pat

Wed 11th December 6pm: Anstey’s Hill

Wed 18th December 6pm: Brownhill Creek

A walk up to McElligotts quarry to enjoy some great views then a descent to the start of the Brownhill Creek Recreation Park. We will follow the creek, either on tracks or road and hopefully see some wildlife along the way, along with some of the great work in re-vegetation and clearing done by Friends of Brownhill Creek.

The Friends of the Heysen Trail

The Friends of the Heysen Trail is the primary partner in maintaining the Heysen Trail. A regular walking program occurs year-wide, with different grades of walks catering for beginners to experienced walkers. More about the Friends

We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the Traditional Owners of the beautiful land that we walk along the Heysen Trail. We appreciate their continuous spiritual connection to this country over thousands of years and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.